Tuesday

Pattern: 198 yds of Heaven (Ravelry-only link, sorry. If you Google "198 yds of Heaven", you can see other people's projects.)

Yarn: Rowan Lima, less than two balls

Needles: US 9

I did the pattern as written and it turned out very pretty. But small (more like a lace kerchief). I'd like to make another for myself with double the amount of yarn.

The yarn was interesting. I bought it because of the heathery color, how soft it is and the fact that it's chain-plied, which interested me. I found no knots in either ball but I did have a mishap where one of the chains broke and when I tugged the yarn, the chain unraveled back. My advice would be to use a wicked dull-tipped needle when you knit with it.

I pinned out the edges to a scalloped shape, rather than points.

Yay for a blocking board, wires and t-pins. Long gone are my ghetto blocking days of bent safety pins and a bare mattress.

Only took about three hours to make. I was going to go with a nice angora worsted weight yarn but thought it might be better to go with fast and easy for the first sweater, so I can make the next one better.

Friday

Having a fun Friday night. Dollar and I went to a very nice restaurant for dinner. We hardly ever dine out at the level that we did and when we do, I usually have a "What a freaking waste of money- I can cook that stuff at home" reaction. But I was able to score a half-priced gift certificate, so that might be why the dinner felt more enjoyable than normal. And the wine. Possibly the beer, too.

After the meal, finishing our drinks, we started having buzzed conversations like...

AMY: First of all, it's called a 'Kindle'. Second of all, they get questionable connectivity around here. Third of all, it's digital books, it's information about your taste in books stored in a database somewhere. If you get a book on how to make homemade bombs and another book about how much you hate America, that's... like, stored somewhere.

DOLLAR: [thoughtful] Hm.

AMY: Not that that'd be a problem for your dad. Or, you know, you. Yeah, your dad would totally love one. Just see if he's be able to get reception where he is.

~~~~

I thought the Kimble/Kindle thing was very sweet. And it appears good food and beer make me kind of paranoid.

Monday

It's times like this when I want start banging Murderface's paw into his face, saying, "Stop hitting yourself, stop hitting yourself, why are you hitting yourself," etc. Dollar says I'm mean. I'm not mean, I won't do it... I just think about it.

It's been pretty cold recently and Murderface has started sleeping between Dollar and I near the top of the bed. We all lay on our sides, facing the same direction, with the cover pulled up over our shoulders- me, Murderface and Dollar. It's very cute.

Wednesday

Two batts I picked up from DyakCraft (formerly known as Grafton Fibers) earlier this year:

This was the first time I'd ever spun from batts and what a way to start. These batts were so soft, so gorgeous and so easy to spin. Opening up the batts, unfolding the fiber, I would murmur to myself, "Gorgeous, just gorgeous."

I'm not sure what to knit but it should be interesting, with subtle striping. I love these jewel-tone colors.

Friday

Making pancakes means you're chained to the stove for however long it takes to make however many you're making. I feel like The Pancake Prisoner while I wait three minutes for one side of four pancakes to brown in the pan... then three minutes for the other side to brown... then put those four pancakes onto a warm plate in the oven while I get another four going-

ARGH! Just writing that out makes me want to kill somebody.

I like Korean pancakes (pajun)- batter with savory stuff like scallions or kimchi added. You make one large pancake and then cut it into triangles or squares to eat. See? Not boring and not stupid.

But plain ol' pancakes? With real maple syrup? And a side of bacon? That's Dollar's ultimate and he whines for it on the weekends. I probably only make it for him once a month. If that.

(I know it seems unfair that Dollar does zero cooking and "if he wants pancakes so bad, he should make them himself." Well, that's true. But he doesn't know how to cook anything from scratch and I'm kind of a control freak about the kitchen and stove. Plus the thought of Dollar cooking bacon makes me want to rest a hand on our fire extinguisher- just to be safe.)

So what's better than pancakes, syrup and bacon for breakfast? Apparently pancakes, syrup and bacon for supper. Having "breakfast for supper" puts Dollar into a state of childish euphoria. Probably the same way some 8-year-old would feel if you handed him a bowl of ice cream for breakfast.

Last night Dollar had a friend over in the evening to play a game of Memoir '44 and I made them pancakes and bacon.They were both so happy that I offered to make "Pancakes and Memoir" a bi-weekly thing for them.

What did I have for supper? I made myself a kimchi pancake. A smart, exciting kimchi pancake :P

Wednesday

Dollar and I picked up a few more expansions for Memoir '44 while we were at Carnage this year. (I think we have them all now, besides a couple Overload scenarios.) We tried the Air Pack first, which comes with 8 painted planes (and stands), new cards for every single Terrain, Special Rule, Action, Nation, Airplane, etc. This expansion also comes with a book of all the scenarios published so far, with revisions for new tiles and air rules.

I chose the Utah Beach scenario to set up. (By the way, I need to get a fishing tackle box and/or cases for all the troops, hexes, tiles, markers, blah-biddey blah-biddey blah. Looking for all the set-up pieces has me rummaging through the main box, the terrain pack, the eastern front, the pacific theater, the mediterranean theater, the air pack. Jeezum crow!)

Dollar and I usually play through once, re-set the board and then switch sides. This scenario started with Germany in strong defensive positions but they were way outnumbered by the US infantry and tanks. I played USA first and generally pushed all my troops up to overwhelm the Axis side. I was able to win 5 medals before Dollar was able to take any (having consistently awesome die rolls helped, too).

We set up again and I took the Axis side. Dollar could have done the same thing as me but he decided to be more... I don't know, slow and careful about it. Which resulted in higher losses for him. Allied still won, but it was close- 5 medals to Axis' 4 medals.

It was fun playing with the planes. Here Dollar's Lockheed P-38 Lightning intimidating some of my Germany infantry:

I launched my Fieseler Storch to do some recon of the US troops (just to the right of the top center):

I was able to perform a rescue of one of my lone infantry troops with the Storch as well.

It was a lot of fun with the addition of the planes. The planes click nicely into their stands and they are painted very well.

Tuesday

I got a 4oz bag of wool and mohair pencil roving from Foxfire Fibers at the the 2009 NH Sheep and Wool Festival (back in May) and spun it up as a single:

The semi-solid denim colorway and sheen from the mohair really drew me in. The finished yarn might not be next-to-the-skin wearable. Still trying to brainstorm what to make with this. Lace, so that I can block the project and terminate any sort of bias that naturally comes from an energized single... Maybe a lace shawlette...